The NBA is currently in the midst of negotiations to reach terms on new media rights agreements with various distributors. Over the last two weeks, reports have stated that a framework has been reached between the league and The Walt Disney Company (ESPN/ABC) that will result in the company retaining the NBA Finals for a reported $2.6 billion annually. Amazon also reportedly has the framework to acquire a streaming package of games worth $1.8 billion annually. NBCUniversal is reported to be bidding $2.5 billion for a slate of games of its own, which would presumably take longtime rightsholder Warner Bros. Discovery out of the mix.

John Ourand, a senior correspondent for Puck News and former reporter for Sports Business Journal, has discussed the ongoing NBA media rights negotiations over the last several months in his twice-weekly private newsletter, “The Varsity.” During a recent guest appearance on SI Media with Jimmy Traina, he spoke about the situation surrounding a third NBA media rights package and where it could land.

“If you look at the NBC bid, the thing that the NBA would like about the NBC bid is the idea that it’s going to have NBC, the broadcast television network,” Ourand said. “The thing that NBC really likes about this bid is the idea of taking exclusive games and putting it on Peacock, their streaming service, because they’re trying to build up Peacock as much as they can. And Paramount+ and Peacock and ESPN+, they’ve all found out that if you get live sports, you generate a lot of subscriptions off of that with passionate fans.”

Ourand pointed to how Peacock retained users who had signed up for its platform to watch an exclusive NFL Wild Card game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins. In fact, a study from Antenna found that among the 3 million users who paid for the service leading up to the contest, 71% of them continued their subscriptions seven weeks later.

Although Warner Bros. Discovery has yet to broadcast an NBA game exclusively on Max, it is working to grow the platform and has implemented it within its sports offerings, in addition to its linear networks (TNT, TBS, truTV) and digital platforms (Bleacher Report, House of Highlights). The company also operates the league-owned broadcast network NBA TV, which is currently distributed in 33 million homes according to data from Nielsen Media Research.

“I am very positive about Warner Bros. Discovery’s chances to keep the NBA,” Ourand stated. “I know they prioritize the NBA, I know that their NBA contracts are a big part of why TNT and TBS command so much money from the cable and satellite operators and I know that the idea that they’ve had the NBA since the 1980s is that’s part of the DNA of the company. Even though the executives haven’t been around for that long, it’s just who that company is. I believe that Warner Bros. Discovery is going to pull out all the stops in order to keep the NBA.”

Charles Barkley, who has been a studio analyst for Inside the NBA since 2000, recently expressed that he has an opt-out in the new 10-year contract he inked with Warner Bros. Discovery last year should the company lose NBA media rights. Colleagues Kenny “The Jet” Smith and Shaquille O’Neal also have these stipulations within their deals that would permit such a move. In an interview on the Dan Patrick Show on Friday morning, Barkley expressed a feeling of uneasiness at TNT Sports and that a decision is expected to come later in the day.

“I always got frustrated when ESPN changed its NBA studio show every couple of years it seemed because they were always competing against Inside the NBA,” Ourand said. “Well, Inside the NBA is barely a studio show; it’s barely an NBA show. They talk about the NBA and they show highlights, but it’s a complete entertainment show.”

Traina emphasized that the quartet is given a significant amount of freedom by TNT and often stay on until 2 a.m. EST during the NBA Playoffs. If the show was to move to NBC, it could potentially become problematic because of other programming that takes place on the linear network. Moreover, he does not believe that people would watch the show on Amazon during the regular season, although regular-season viewership of the league on ABC, ESPN, TNT and NBA TV averaged 1.09 million viewers, which is up 1% year-over-year.

“For as long as I’ve covered this beat, broadcast television is where everybody wants to be because that has the biggest reach,” Ourand said. “Well, the NBA is looking at Netflix, and it has a reach that goes beyond our shores. It’s an international reach, and the one thing that Adam Silver has always said is, ‘We need to redefine what we view as reach.’ Something like Amazon, it’s able to reach more people, maybe a different [demographic] of people than traditional TV is used to.”

CBS Sports announced earlier in the week that former NFL quarterback Matt Ryan will join The NFL Today, starting with the upcoming NFL season. As a result, it decided not to renew the contracts of longtime analysts and former NFL quarterbacks Boomer Esiason and Phil Simms, thus ending their tenures with the network. While Simms is not sure about his next move in media, Esiason subsequently signed a contract extension to remain in morning drive on Audacy-owned WFAN.

Esiason previously stated that he perceived the Super Bowl broadcast as his “swan song” with CBS Sports when discussing his move. During a recent appearance on Meadowlark Media’s God Bless Football, he elaborated on the situation further and outlined his rationale, confirming that he did not feel blindsided by the decision. Part of the timing came with the retirement of CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus, who had hired Esiason to join the network ahead of the 2000 season. In the end, he felt it was “just a natural thing” to move on but did not want to discuss it at the Super Bowl because he felt it was not appropriate.

“I was ready,” Esiason said. “Twenty-two years – I have not had a weekend in 40 years or back-to-back weekends, I should say, in the fall. For me, it’s been a great run, and on top of all of that, I was able to extend my radio program in the morning with WFAN and Audacy, and the CBS Sports Network simulcast picked us up for another two years. So, with all of that happening, I was more than happy to step aside, and I had my time there.

“I loved my time there – I have no ill will towards anybody,” Esiason said. “As a matter of fact, I texted the guy that handles all the lunch for everybody and I said, ‘You may get a text from me in the middle of the year when I come back to visit for a day.’”

In the playoff rounds leading up to Super Bowl LVIII, CBS Sports averaged 45.6 million viewers, which is up 12% year-over-year and represents the best figure since resuming NFL broadcasts. Super Bowl LVIII broke records by averaging 123.7 million viewers across multiple platforms, and a subsequent custom survey from Nielsen Media Research revealed that the championship contest reached an estimated 210 million viewers, approximately two-thirds of all Americans. The network will look to capitalize off of that success next season with the new studio show cast of host James Brown with analysts Bill Cowher, Nate Burleson, J.J. Watt and Matt Ryan.

“I called Matt Ryan and he said, ‘Can I call you in the summer? I really want to talk to you about what it means to be on the show and everything,’” Esiason recalled, “and I said, ‘Matt, there’s only really one thing. You’re eloquent enough, you’re loquacious enough, you look good, you dress great, you’re really knowledgeable, you are contemporary – a little bit more contemporary than I am of course – and you want to know something, the most important thing about sitting in that chair is that the people that are watching you on a Sunday need to know that you love to be there.’”

The conversation moved to discuss Jon “Stugotz” Weiner and his candidacy to lead WFAN and Infinity Sports Network before the hiring of Ryan Hurley. Esiason was initially intrigued by Weiner joining the station, thinking that he would bring gravitas to the outlet in a way similar to Spike Eskin.

“And then I started to think, ‘Wait a minute, he likes being on the air, and maybe he is buying into this nonsense that Craig Carton had said right before he left to go to FS1, and that is, ‘Boomer’s going to retire in two years,’’ so I figured you were going to be a trojan horse once you got in there,” Esiason said. “So, it didn’t work out for sure, but maybe next time around it will, but I think Ryan Hurley for us [being] at WFAN is going to be great.”

After the Milwaukee Bucks dropped Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals to the Indiana Pacers and were thus eliminated from the NBA Playoffs, guard Patrick Beverley declined to answer a question during his postgame media availability. The question came from longtime ESPN producer Malinda Adams, who was then asked by Beverley if she subscribed to his podcast. When she said that she did not, Beverley informed her that he would not be answering her question. As he was talking with another reporter, he directed Adams to remove her microphone from the media scrum and asked her to leave the postgame availability.

This acrimonious speech and repulsive conduct added to what was already a controversial night for Beverley. Towards the end of the game, he hurled a basketball at a group of Pacers fans two times. Beverley claimed on X that it was “not fair at all” and was trying to get security to do something about the group.

Nonetheless, Beverley, who will be a free agent once the playoffs end, has been the subject of scorn and contempt due to both incidents and the history he has accumulated of problematic behavior. His actions were a subject of discussion on Friday’s edition of The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz, specifically pertaining to what he did in the locker room and how he acted towards media trying to do its job.

“Patrick Beverley is getting dragged today, and it’s not just a basketball moment and it’s not just an a**hole to reporters moment,” Le Batard said. “It’s ‘cause he did it to a woman. It’s getting more and more inflamed because he did it to a woman, and it’s not, ‘Who cares? Shut up.’ People do care.”

Beverley has appeared on ESPN as an analyst during playoffs coverage in the past and currently hosts his eponymous podcast through Barstool Sports. Amin Elhassan, who hosts several shows for Meadowlark Media, addressed the situation directly from the moment the audio was played on the program.

“He does not have the power to eject someone from media availability. P.R. does,” Elhassan said. “If P.R. wants to say, ‘Ma’am, you need to leave,’ then that’s one thing. I wish someone would have said, ‘Hey man, just shut up and answer the question.’ One would hope that somebody in that room says, ‘Hey man, just answer the question. Stop messing around.’”

Show contributor Jeremy Taché added that while athletes have neglected to answer questions in the past, the action Beverley took by instructing a media member to remove their microphone and exit the postgame availability was particularly alarming and extremely disrespectful. Elhassan replied by placing some of the blame on the other journalists who did not choose to speak up and support Adams in the moment. Le Batard then pointed out that Beverley was wearing headwear that read ‘Ass,’ which he stated described both his behavior and his performance in the game.

“Do you know how many people there are in the NBA who average nine points a season for their career or whatever it is that Patrick Beverley averages?,” Le Batard questioned. “He’s famous and known for being this thing that is a little crazy and a lot of irritant and yappy – perpetually yappy.”

Elhassan emphasized that Adams did not do anything wrong and was simply trying to complete the tasks associated with her job. In the end, he believed that Beverley was trying to promote what he referred to as his “stupid-ass podcast.” Show contributor Charlotte Wilder added that Beverley had refused to talk to other reporters in Milwaukee during the season if they were not subscribed to his podcast. She felt that public relations professionals and other journalists in Milwaukee need to realize that they will ultimately be there longer than Beverley and stand up for those being disrespected.

“If he had a 10-year deal, who the f**k cares,” Elhassan said. “‘I didn’t get the Patrick Beverley quote.’ Who the f**k cares?”

Show contributor Tony Calatayud presented the dichotomy of players being a headache to a team and having value. He believes that Beverley is “already on the headache side of the spectrum” and does not believe that a team will view it as essential to sign him to a contract next season. Le Batard, who has covered sporting events and been in postgame media availability sessions before, provided his opinion on the state of the locker room.

“I don’t believe that the locker room is still as safe for women as it is for men,” Le Batard said. “Everyone’s trying, but you’re occasionally going to have the man in a locker room who’s not okay with women in the locker room…. It’s not the place it was when I was growing up in locker rooms, but there are plenty of men athletes still in locker rooms who are not welcoming to women there. It is not as friendly to women as it is to men by consensus. Some people are just sort of tolerating it or pretending.”